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Titus Andronicus - Act 3, scene 2
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Titus Andronicus - Act 3, scene 2Act 3, scene 2
⌜Scene 2⌝
Synopsis:
In this scene, which is found in the 1623 Folio text but not in the Quarto, Titus is horrified when Marcus kills an innocent fly, but then turns on the dead fly in rage when told that it resembles Aaron the Moor.
⟨A banquet. Enter ⌜Titus⌝ Andronicus, Marcus, Lavinia,and the boy ⌜Young Lucius, with Servants.⌝
TITUS
1348 So, so. Now sit, and look you eat no more
1349 Than will preserve just so much strength in us
1350 As will revenge these bitter woes of ours.
1351 Marcus, unknit that sorrow-wreathen knot.
1352 5 Thy niece and I, poor creatures, want our hands
1353 And cannot passionate our tenfold grief
1354 With folded arms. This poor right hand of mine
1355 Is left to tyrannize upon my breast,
1356 Who, when my heart, all mad with misery,
1357 10 Beats in this hollow prison of my flesh,
1358 Then thus I thump it down.—
1359 Thou map of woe, that thus dost talk in signs,
1360 When thy poor heart beats with outrageous beating,
1361 Thou canst not strike it thus to make it still.
1362 15 Wound it with sighing, girl, kill it with groans;
1363 Or get some little knife between thy teeth
1364 And just against thy heart make thou a hole,
1365 That all the tears that thy poor eyes let fall
1366 May run into that sink and, soaking in,
1367 20 Drown the lamenting fool in sea-salt tears.
MARCUS
1368 Fie, brother, fie! Teach her not thus to lay
1369 Such violent hands upon her tender life.
TITUS
1370 How now! Has sorrow made thee dote already?
1371 Why, Marcus, no man should be mad but I.
1372 25 What violent hands can she lay on her life?
1373 Ah, wherefore dost thou urge the name of hands,
1374 To bid Aeneas tell the tale twice o’er
1375 How Troy was burnt and he made miserable?
1376 O, handle not the theme, to talk of hands,
p.
115
1377
30 Lest we remember still that we have none.—1378 Fie, fie, how franticly I square my talk,
1379 As if we should forget we had no hands
1380 If Marcus did not name the word of hands!
1381 Come, let’s fall to, and, gentle girl, eat this.
1382 35 Here is no drink!—Hark, Marcus, what she says.
1383 I can interpret all her martyred signs.
1384 She says she drinks no other drink but tears
1385 Brewed with her sorrow, mashed upon her cheeks.—
1386 Speechless complainer, I will learn thy thought.
1387 40 In thy dumb action will I be as perfect
1388 As begging hermits in their holy prayers.
1389 Thou shalt not sigh, nor hold thy stumps to heaven,
1390 Nor wink, nor nod, nor kneel, nor make a sign,
1391 But I of these will wrest an alphabet
1392 45 And by still practice learn to know thy meaning.
YOUNG LUCIUS, ⌜weeping⌝
1393 Good grandsire, leave these bitter deep laments.
1394 Make my aunt merry with some pleasing tale.
MARCUS
1395 Alas, the tender boy, in passion moved,
1396 Doth weep to see his grandsire’s heaviness.
TITUS
1397 50 Peace, tender sapling. Thou art made of tears,
1398 And tears will quickly melt thy life away.
Marcus strikes the dish with a knife.
1399 What dost thou strike at, Marcus, with ⌜thy⌝ knife?
MARCUS
1400 At that that I have killed, my lord, a fly.
TITUS
1401 Out on thee, murderer! Thou kill’st my heart.
1402 55 Mine eyes ⌜are⌝ cloyed with view of tyranny;
1403 A deed of death done on the innocent
1404 Becomes not Titus’ brother. Get thee gone.
1405 I see thou art not for my company.
p.
117
MARCUS 1406 Alas, my lord, I have but killed a fly.
TITUS
1407 60 “But”? How if that fly had a father and mother?
1408 How would he hang his slender gilded wings
1409 And buzz lamenting doings in the air!
1410 Poor harmless fly,
1411 That, with his pretty buzzing melody,
1412 65 Came here to make us merry! And thou hast killed
1413 him.
MARCUS
1414 Pardon me, sir. It was a black, ill-favored fly,
1415 Like to the Empress’ Moor. Therefore I killed him.
TITUS 1416 O, O, O!
1417 70 Then pardon me for reprehending thee,
1418 For thou hast done a charitable deed.
1419 Give me thy knife. I will insult on him,
1420 Flattering myself as if it were the Moor
1421 Come hither purposely to poison me.
1422 75 There’s for thyself, and that’s for Tamora.
1423 Ah, sirrah!
1424 Yet I think we are not brought so low
1425 But that between us we can kill a fly
1426 That comes in likeness of a coal-black Moor.
MARCUS
1427 80 Alas, poor man, grief has so wrought on him
1428 He takes false shadows for true substances.
TITUS
1429 Come, take away.—Lavinia, go with me.
1430 I’ll to thy closet and go read with thee
1431 Sad stories chancèd in the times of old.—
1432 85 Come, boy, and go with me. Thy sight is young,
1433 And thou shalt read when mine begin to dazzle.
They exit.⟩